Huge Indian Rally Came Against Best

The next time a manager complains about an opposing player stealing a base or bunting for a hit with a seven-run lead in the late innings, just point to last Sunday night’s Cleveland-Seattle game, irrefutable evidence in support of the no-lead-is-safe argument.

The Indians trailed, 14-2, before scoring 12 runs in the final three innings of regulation, including five with two outs in the ninth. Jolbert Cabrera’s one-out RBI single in the 11th won it, 15-14.

The greatest comeback in Indian history tied a major league record for the biggest comeback to win a game, achieved twice previously.

On June 18, 1911, the Tigers trailed the White Sox, 13-1, in the fifth inning but came back to win, 16-15. On June 15, 1925, the Indians led Philadelphia, 15-3, in the seventh, but the A’s scored one in the seventh and 13 in the eighth to win, 17-15.

“It was like cutting your fingernail and bleeding to death--we couldn’t stop it,” Mariner reliever Norm Charlton said. “The odds of that happening are zero. It hasn’t happened since 1925. And what are the odds of doing it against this bullpen? Zero.”

That’s the most astonishing thing about this comeback. It’s one thing to score 10 in the eighth off a ragged Angel bullpen, as the Indians did when they erased a 12-4 deficit in a 14-12 win on Aug. 31, 1999.

But Cleveland torched what many consider to be baseball’s best bullpen, scoring 10 runs on 15 hits off relievers in the final five innings, including Omar Vizquel’s three-run, game-tying triple off Kazuhiro Sasaki in the ninth.

“The seventh inning and you’re down 12 against their bullpen?” Cleveland General Manager John Hart said. “If you were going to bet the farm [on a Mariner victory], that was a pretty good bet.”

A word of caution for Indian fans who figure, after last Sunday’s game, that this must be their year: The Indians are 10th in the league in earned-run average (4.70). In the 100-year history of the American League, one team--the 1987 Minnesota Twins--won a pennant with a pitching staff as bad as the 2001 Indians.

The ’87 World Series-champion Twins finished 10th in ERA, but an outrageous home record (56-25) overcame their poor pitching. But they were an aberration: The team that has won the AL pennant has finished in the top three in ERA in 81 of 100 years.

More sobering statistics: In 23 games this season, the Indians have been trailing by four or more runs by the fourth inning. In 10 games, Cleveland’s first reliever has thrown more pitches than the starter.

On the lighter side . . . Konishiki, the retired supreme champion of Japanese sumo wrestling, visited Safeco Field before Wednesday’s game, surprising Ichiro Suzuki, the Japanese right fielder.

“Konishiki? Here? Wow,” Ichiro marveled. “He was a great one.”

Ichiro enjoys attending sumo contests in Japan, so he was kiddingly asked if he ever considered trying the sport. “No, too skinny. Konishiki is four Ichiros,” he said.

Konishiki, a 550-pound native of Hawaii who is now a celebrity reporter for Nippon TV, was asked if he had seen Ichiro play ball in Japan.

“Everyone has seen Ichiro play,” Konishiki said. “Baseball is on TV 24 hours a day there.”

There are impatient hitters, and there is Kansas City designated hitter Mark Quinn, who has not drawn a walk in 197 plate appearances, a streak dating to May 8.

The Royals’ patience with Quinn is wearing thin. Manager Tony Muser criticized him, and General Manager Allard Baird gave him a private tongue-lashing Tuesday night.

“Instead of brain-dead hacking, I’ve got to go up there with the intent to move a runner over, drive a guy in,” Quinn said the next day. “I have to realize when they can pitch around me and let them do it.”

Line of the week: Detroit Free Press writer John Lowe on the Tigers’ 13-run ninth inning Wednesday night: “It was one of the greatest ninths since Beethoven’s.”

Stat of the week: Since joining the Mariner rotation a few weeks ago, Joel Pineiro, a 22-year-old rookie right-hander, has gone 2-0 with a 0.86 ERA and has not yielded a hit to a right-handed batter in 46 at-bats.